SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — For better or worse, Tulo carries the Rockies on his back. But now the face of Colorado’s baseball franchise has an even heavier, more important job description, and a new title to go with it: Daddy.

Everywhere you see Rockies star Troy Tulowitzki this spring, he proudly wears a purple T-shirt with big letters printed on the front that salute Taz, his 2-month-old son.

But if you think fatherhood is going to mellow the shortstop and put a batting slump or a five-game losing streak in perspective, then you don’t know jack about Tulo.

“At times, there are bigger things in life than the game, and that was hard for me to realize for a long time, because I care so much about this game,” Tulowitzki said, as we stood in front of his locker at the team’s spring training facility. “The fathers I’ve talked to have told me it will be a change, but a change in a good way.”

Emboldened by Tulo’s philosophical moment, I stepped in and suggested a small child doesn’t care whether Daddy’s bad day at the office included a throwing error or a strikeout with runners in scoring position. Oops, that was a mistake as obvious as the frown of disapproval shot back at me by Tulowitzki.

“I will be happy to see him when I get home, but I will still be upset,” Tulowitzki said. “Maybe, for a lot of people, fatherhood changes things that way. But it won’t change me. Knowing me the way I do, seeing my son will put a smile on my face, but I won’t forget I lost the battle that day.”

Of all the amazing things Tulowitzki has done on the diamond as the best shortstop in the game, from wrapping a home run around the left-field foul pole to pulling off an unassisted triple play, nothing has caused me to do such a double take as when Tulo departed the clubhouse on a Monday afternoon, while snuggling a baby boy to his chest.

Although the birth announcement had been in the news, my first reaction was: Whose infant is Tulowitzki holding? The snapshot in my mind of Tulo is forever young: The kid shortstop that walked with a swagger and rocked Rocktober back in 2007.

But time flies, and nothing can make it move faster than when you begin counting the mileposts of a child. In six full seasons, Colorado has not gotten another serious sniff at the World Series. When the playoffs roll around in 2014, Tulowitzki will be 30, in the middle of his career, at a time when an athlete begins to hear the clock tick louder and waiting until next season to win becomes less palatable by the year.

“Everybody remembers the young Tulo, the guy who plays with fire and intensity on a winning team,” Tulowitzki said. “Now, my role is a little different. I wouldn’t say I’m old, but now I’ve probably been around this team the longest.”

That’s why, as the Rockies begin another season, it feels as if the franchise is at a crossroads. Is Tulowitzki a lifer in Colorado, the way recently retired first baseman Todd Helton represented the team during each of his 2,247 games in the major leagues?

Coors Field sounds best when the crowd is chanting Tulo’s name. But as the injuries and losses have mounted, Tulowitzki also has become the face of frustration of a team fans can’t quit cheering, but have become more apt to criticize.

“I’ve seen both sides. I was the young player that fans were on top of the world with, because I came to the organization and we went to the World Series, then two years later were right back in the playoffs,” Tulowitzki said.

“But now, after a couple losing seasons in a row, I seem to take some of the blame because of my injury history, how much I’m paid and things like that. To deal with it, the big thing with me is to stay true to my preparation and my passion for a game that I’ve loved for years. So I know regardless of how anybody might view me, I can answer deep down to myself that I come to the field for the right reasons. Once I came to realize that, it has made my job a lot easier.”

Tulowitzki chases a groundball into the hole with abandon. He slides hard, doesn’t mask his emotions and tells anybody willing to listen exactly what’s on his mind. I like it all. But it makes Tulowitzki a little abrasive for laid-back Colorado, where baseball is an excuse to get a tan rather than a religion.

“I’m a very opinionated person. That’s why a lot of people like me. And it’s also why a lot of people hate me,” Tulowitzki said.

Rockies owner Dick Monfort has said he expects Tulowitzki to become a better leader.

Fair enough, as long as Tulo can also expect ownership to surround him with a team that has a legitimate chance to win the National League pennant.

He’s not a kid any longer. Tulowitzki is a father. His 30th birthday awaits at season’s end.

Let’s hope when he blows out the candle on the cake, there will be a playoff berth to celebrate.

Tulowitzki is a winner. I want to see him win, whether it’s in Colorado or elsewhere.

More in Sports

“This is one of the great jobs in all of sports,” Colorado AD RIck George said Sunday. “There's not a better job in America than here in Colorado." Translation: If you’re not here to win championships, pal, don’t join the party.

If recent history is any indication, Helton likely faces an uphill climb to become the first Colorado player inducted into Cooperstown because of the bias that voters tend to hold against hitters who spent their careers playing home games at elevation.

The inspiration for the nickname came from "the outdoors, the sunshine, that feeling you get when you live here in Colorado," Vibes general manager Chris Phillips explained during Monday's name unveiling.

In his long-running role as the Chargers’ yappy quarterback, Rivers is the football villain Denver loves to hate most. On this November afternoon, Rivers inexplicably decided to pick a fight with Harris, the Broncos’ shutdown corner.